Vander
Background Born during a warm German spring in 1861, Vander’s life, one might say, only became colder from that point. Life as a young child wasn’t very easy for Van; his parents fell upon hard times almost immediately after his birth. Quickly losing their home in the city, they were forced to move out into the slums. His father was unable to retain steady work because of some turbulent market issues and a nasty drinking habit, which also created a violent home for a young man to grow up in. At the tender age of 5, Vander was sold to a labor camp so that his parents could afford a few more months worth of food. Time and a harsh work environment created a mean spirited boy who wanted nothing more than to kill those who enslaved him... and those who sold him into this lifestyle. Nine long years in the work camp, working almost non-stop on menial tasks and playing a glorified delivery boy most of the time, instilled some very harsh realities upon him. Watching those who owned and managed the camp made him realize that nothing in life is free... if you aren’t allowed to work for something that you want, then you must take it by force. Of course, not the only young man in the camp, this lesson wasn’t lost all his co-workers either. Most of these young lads learned to transfer their anger and aggression into forms of bullying the smaller and weaker kids, not being very big, Vander was in trouble. During these nine years he was almost beaten to death no less than four times, each time worse than the time before, mostly because of his stubborn nature, the other boys thought if they beat him harder he would give up his extra rations he received from working well in one of the factories. During his fourteenth year, something changed. Nightmares started to fill his sleeping hours, and ghostly visions and premonitions started to slip into those hours he was awake. His behavior drove the other young boys away, especially after an episode during one night in the stockade. Waking up from a horrible nightmare, Vander gripped his bed sheets tightly and for some unknown reason fire started to burn the sheet around where his hands were. The dry material quickly burst into flames, scaring Van even more than he was, and also waking up all the other boys in the barracks. Everyone scrambled to the exit of the building, Van didn’t even register until later that the fire had done nothing to him, even though he had been wrapped in the bed sheets. Many of the boys noticed where the fire started, strange talk started to circulate, and within two weeks Van knew that he had to get out of this camp... if it wasn’t going to be the boys that finally kill him for being either a crazed pyromaniac or a freak, it would probably be the owners of the camp. Following instructions he got from a strange dream, Vander was able to escape the camp, he was surprised with the ease of his escape... and to this day doesn’t know if it was luck, or if he was just allowed to escape. Life on the outside was still difficult for everyone needing to make their way, and in moment of poor judgment and anger, Vander joined the German army. After all he had been through, the food was an improvement, work wasn’t that much harder, and he was actually paid! Van also became acquainted with his first love... guns. And his second love... killing. The dreams persisted, but as he matured they seemed to be less and less abstract, and more specific. Van regularly kept a notebook by his cot, making notes and writing all that he could remember from his dreams. There were only a few more outbreaks of strange occurrences that he couldn’t explain, most of them fire based, but thankfully there were few witnesses and he was quick enough to come up with an explanation for it. After serving for a few years a terrible dream awakened him one night, and for some reason he was unable to remember anything about it, other than the overwhelming feeling of horror, and the need to leave Europe as soon as he could possibly manage it. And thus begins the story, surely to be sad, story of man: Vander